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Using PuTTY

PuTTY

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Chapter 3: Using PuTTY

This chapter provides a general introduction to some more advanced features of PuTTY. For extreme detail and reference purposes, chapter 4 is likely to contain more information.

  • 3.1 During your session
    • 3.1.1 Copying and pasting text
    • 3.1.2 Scrolling the screen back
    • 3.1.3 The System menu
  • 3.2 Creating a log file of your session
  • 3.3 Altering your character set configuration
  • 3.4 Using X11 forwarding in SSH
  • 3.5 Using port forwarding in SSH
  • 3.6 Making raw TCP connections
  • 3.7 Connecting to a local serial line
  • 3.8 The PuTTY command line
    • 3.8.1 Starting a session from the command line
    • 3.8.2 -cleanup
    • 3.8.3 Standard command-line options
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Table of contents

  • PuTTY User Manual
  • Introduction to PuTTY
    • What are SSH, Telnet and Rlogin?
    • How do SSH, Telnet and Rlogin differ?
  • Getting started with PuTTY
    • Starting a session
    • Verifying the host key (SSH only)
    • Logging in
    • After logging in
    • Logging out
  • Using PuTTY
    • During your session
      • Copying and pasting text
      • Scrolling the screen back
      • The System menu
        • The PuTTY Event Log
        • Special commands
        • Starting new sessions
        • Changing your session settings
        • Copy All to Clipboard
        • Clearing and resetting the terminal
        • Full screen mode
    • Creating a log file of your session
    • Altering your character set configuration
    • Using X11 forwarding in SSH
    • Using port forwarding in SSH
    • Making raw TCP connections
    • Connecting to a local serial line
    • The PuTTY command line
      • Starting a session from the command line
      • -cleanup
      • Standard command-line options
        • -load: load a saved session
        • Selecting a protocol: -ssh, -telnet, -rlogin, -raw -serial
        • -v: increase verbosity
        • -l: specify a login name
        • -L, -R and -D: set up port forwardings
        • -m: read a remote command or script from a file
        • -P: specify a port number
        • -pw: specify a password
        • -agent and -noagent: control use of Pageant for authentication
        • -A and -a: control agent forwarding
        • -X and -x: control X11 forwarding
        • -t and -T: control pseudo-terminal allocation
        • -N: suppress starting a shell or command
        • -nc: make a remote network connection in place of a remote shell or command
        • -C: enable compression
        • -1 and -2: specify an SSH protocol version
        • -4 and -6: specify an Internet protocol version
        • -i: specify an SSH private key
        • -loghost: specify a logical host name
        • -hostkey: manually specify an expected host key
        • -pgpfp: display PGP key fingerprints
        • -sercfg: specify serial port configuration
        • -sessionlog, -sshlog, -sshrawlog: specify session logging
        • -proxycmd: specify a local proxy command
        • -restrict-acl: restrict the Windows process ACL
  • Configuring PuTTY
    • The Session panel
      • The host name section
      • Loading and storing saved sessions
      • ‘Close Window on Exit’
    • The Logging panel
      • ‘Log file name’
      • ‘What to do if the log file already exists’
      • ‘Flush log file frequently’
      • Options specific to SSH packet logging
        • ‘Omit known password fields’
        • ‘Omit session data’
    • The Terminal panel
      • ‘Auto wrap mode initially on’
      • ‘DEC Origin Mode initially on’
      • ‘Implicit CR in every LF’
      • ‘Implicit LF in every CR’
      • ‘Use background colour to erase screen’
      • ‘Enable blinking text’
      • ‘Answerback to ^E’
      • ‘Local echo’
      • ‘Local line editing’
      • Remote-controlled printing
    • The Keyboard panel
      • Changing the action of the Backspace key
      • Changing the action of the Home and End keys
      • Changing the action of the function keys and keypad
      • Controlling Application Cursor Keys mode
      • Controlling Application Keypad mode
      • Using NetHack keypad mode
      • Enabling a DEC-like Compose key
      • ‘Control-Alt is different from AltGr’
    • The Bell panel
      • ‘Set the style of bell’
      • ‘Taskbar/caption indication on bell’
      • ‘Control the bell overload behaviour’
    • The Features panel
      • Disabling application keypad and cursor keys
      • Disabling xterm-style mouse reporting
      • Disabling remote terminal resizing
      • Disabling switching to the alternate screen
      • Disabling remote window title changing
      • Response to remote window title querying
      • Disabling remote scrollback clearing
      • Disabling destructive backspace
      • Disabling remote character set configuration
      • Disabling Arabic text shaping
      • Disabling bidirectional text display
    • The Window panel
      • Setting the size of the PuTTY window
      • What to do when the window is resized
      • Controlling scrollback
      • ‘Push erased text into scrollback’
    • The Appearance panel
      • Controlling the appearance of the cursor
      • Controlling the font used in the terminal window
      • ‘Hide mouse pointer when typing in window’
      • Controlling the window border
    • The Behaviour panel
      • Controlling the window title
      • ‘Warn before closing window’
      • ‘Window closes on ALT-F4’
      • ‘System menu appears on ALT-Space’
      • ‘System menu appears on Alt alone’
      • ‘Ensure window is always on top’
      • ‘Full screen on Alt-Enter’
    • The Translation panel
      • Controlling character set translation
      • ‘Treat CJK ambiguous characters as wide’
      • ‘Caps Lock acts as Cyrillic switch’
      • Controlling display of line-drawing characters
      • Controlling copy and paste of line drawing characters
    • The Selection panel
      • Pasting in Rich Text Format
      • Changing the actions of the mouse buttons
      • ‘Shift overrides application's use of mouse’
      • Default selection mode
      • Configuring word-by-word selection
    • The Colours panel
      • ‘Allow terminal to specify ANSI colours’
      • ‘Allow terminal to use xterm 256-colour mode’
      • ‘Indicate bolded text by changing...’
      • ‘Attempt to use logical palettes’
      • ‘Use system colours’
      • Adjusting the colours in the terminal window
    • The Connection panel
      • Using keepalives to prevent disconnection
      • ‘Disable Nagle's algorithm’
      • ‘Enable TCP keepalives’
      • ‘Internet protocol’
      • ‘Logical name of remote host’
    • The Data panel
      • ‘Auto-login username’
      • Use of system username
      • ‘Terminal-type string’
      • ‘Terminal speeds’
      • Setting environment variables on the server
    • The Proxy panel
      • Setting the proxy type
      • Excluding parts of the network from proxying
      • Name resolution when using a proxy
      • Username and password
      • Specifying the Telnet or Local proxy command
      • Controlling proxy logging
    • The Telnet panel
      • ‘Handling of OLD_ENVIRON ambiguity’
      • Passive and active Telnet negotiation modes
      • ‘Keyboard sends Telnet special commands’
      • ‘Return key sends Telnet New Line instead of ^M’
    • The Rlogin panel
      • ‘Local username’
    • The SSH panel
      • Executing a specific command on the server
      • ‘Don't start a shell or command at all’
      • ‘Enable compression’
      • ‘SSH protocol version’
      • Sharing an SSH connection between PuTTY tools
    • The Kex panel
      • Key exchange algorithm selection
      • Repeat key exchange
    • The Host Keys panel
      • Host key type selection
      • Manually configuring host keys
    • The Cipher panel
    • The Auth panel
      • ‘Display pre-authentication banner’
      • ‘Bypass authentication entirely’
      • ‘Attempt authentication using Pageant’
      • ‘Attempt TIS or CryptoCard authentication’
      • ‘Attempt keyboard-interactive authentication’
      • ‘Allow agent forwarding’
      • ‘Allow attempted changes of username in SSH-2’
      • ‘Private key file for authentication’
    • The GSSAPI panel
      • ‘Allow GSSAPI credential delegation’
      • Preference order for GSSAPI libraries
    • The TTY panel
      • ‘Don't allocate a pseudo-terminal’
      • Sending terminal modes
    • The X11 panel
      • Remote X11 authentication
      • X authority file for local display
    • The Tunnels panel
      • Controlling the visibility of forwarded ports
      • Selecting Internet protocol version for forwarded ports
    • The Bugs and More Bugs panels
      • ‘Chokes on SSH-1 ignore messages’
      • ‘Refuses all SSH-1 password camouflage’
      • ‘Chokes on SSH-1 RSA authentication’
      • ‘Chokes on SSH-2 ignore messages’
      • ‘Chokes on PuTTY's SSH-2 ‘winadj’ requests’
      • ‘Miscomputes SSH-2 HMAC keys’
      • ‘Miscomputes SSH-2 encryption keys’
      • ‘Requires padding on SSH-2 RSA signatures’
      • ‘Misuses the session ID in SSH-2 PK auth’
      • ‘Handles SSH-2 key re-exchange badly’
      • ‘Ignores SSH-2 maximum packet size’
      • ‘Replies to requests on closed channels’
      • ‘Only supports pre-RFC4419 SSH-2 DH GEX’
    • The Serial panel
      • Selecting a serial line to connect to
      • Selecting the speed of your serial line
      • Selecting the number of data bits
      • Selecting the number of stop bits
      • Selecting the serial parity checking scheme
      • Selecting the serial flow control scheme
    • Storing configuration in a file
  • Using PSCP to transfer files securely
    • Starting PSCP
    • PSCP Usage
      • The basics
        • user
        • host
        • source
        • target
      • Options
        • -ls list remote files
        • -p preserve file attributes
        • -q quiet, don't show statistics
        • -r copies directories recursively
        • -batch avoid interactive prompts
        • -sftp, -scp force use of particular protocol
      • Return value
      • Using public key authentication with PSCP
  • Using PSFTP to transfer files securely
    • Starting PSFTP
      • -b: specify a file containing batch commands
      • -bc: display batch commands as they are run
      • -be: continue batch processing on errors
      • -batch: avoid interactive prompts
    • Running PSFTP
      • General quoting rules for PSFTP commands
      • Wildcards in PSFTP
      • The open command: start a session
      • The quit command: end your session
      • The close command: close your connection
      • The help command: get quick online help
      • The cd and pwd commands: changing the remote working directory
      • The lcd and lpwd commands: changing the local working directory
      • The get command: fetch a file from the server
      • The put command: send a file to the server
      • The mget and mput commands: fetch or send multiple files
      • The reget and reput commands: resuming file transfers
      • The dir command: list remote files
      • The chmod command: change permissions on remote files
      • The del command: delete remote files
      • The mkdir command: create remote directories
      • The rmdir command: remove remote directories
      • The mv command: move and rename remote files
      • The ! command: run a local Windows command
    • Using public key authentication with PSFTP
  • Using the command-line connection tool Plink
    • Starting Plink
    • Using Plink
      • Using Plink for interactive logins
      • Using Plink for automated connections
      • Plink command line options
        • -batch: disable all interactive prompts
        • -s: remote command is SSH subsystem
        • -shareexists: test for connection-sharing upstream
    • Using Plink in batch files and scripts
    • Using Plink with CVS
    • Using Plink with WinCVS
  • Using public keys for SSH authentication
    • Public key authentication - an introduction
    • Using PuTTYgen, the PuTTY key generator
      • Generating a new key
      • Selecting the type of key
      • Selecting the size (strength) of the key
      • The ‘Generate’ button
      • The ‘Key fingerprint’ box
      • Setting a comment for your key
      • Setting a passphrase for your key
      • Saving your private key to a disk file
      • Saving your public key to a disk file
      • ‘Public key for pasting into authorized_keys file’
      • Reloading a private key
      • Dealing with private keys in other formats
    • Getting ready for public key authentication
  • Using Pageant for authentication
    • Getting started with Pageant
    • The Pageant main window
      • The key list box
      • The ‘Add Key’ button
      • The ‘Remove Key’ button
    • The Pageant command line
      • Making Pageant automatically load keys on startup
      • Making Pageant run another program
    • Using agent forwarding
    • Security considerations
  • Common error messages
    • ‘The server's host key is not cached in the registry’
    • ‘WARNING - POTENTIAL SECURITY BREACH!’
    • ‘SSH protocol version 2 required by our configuration but server only provides (old, insecure) SSH-1’
    • ‘The first cipher supported by the server is ... below the configured warning threshold’
    • ‘Server sent disconnect message type 2 (protocol error): "Too many authentication failures for root"’
    • ‘Out of memory’
    • ‘Internal error’, ‘Internal fault’, ‘Assertion failed’
    • ‘Unable to use this private key file’, ‘Couldn't load private key’, ‘Key is of wrong type’
    • ‘Server refused our public key’ or ‘Key refused’
    • ‘Access denied’, ‘Authentication refused’
    • ‘No supported authentication methods available’
    • ‘Incorrect CRC received on packet’ or ‘Incorrect MAC received on packet’
    • ‘Incoming packet was garbled on decryption’
    • ‘PuTTY X11 proxy: various errors’
    • ‘Network error: Software caused connection abort’
    • ‘Network error: Connection reset by peer’
    • ‘Network error: Connection refused’
    • ‘Network error: Connection timed out’
    • ‘Network error: Cannot assign requested address’
  • PuTTY FAQ
    • Introduction
      • What is PuTTY?
    • Features supported in PuTTY
      • Does PuTTY support SSH-2?
      • Does PuTTY support reading OpenSSH or ssh.com SSH-2 private key files?
      • Does PuTTY support SSH-1?
      • Does PuTTY support local echo?
      • Does PuTTY support storing settings, so I don't have to change them every time?
      • Does PuTTY support storing its settings in a disk file?
      • Does PuTTY support full-screen mode, like a DOS box?
      • Does PuTTY have the ability to remember my password so I don't have to type it every time?
      • Is there an option to turn off the annoying host key prompts?
      • Will you write an SSH server for the PuTTY suite, to go with the client?
      • Can PSCP or PSFTP transfer files in ASCII mode?
    • Ports to other operating systems
      • What ports of PuTTY exist?
      • Is there a port to Unix?
      • What's the point of the Unix port? Unix has OpenSSH.
      • Will there be a port to Windows CE or PocketPC?
      • Is there a port to Windows 3.1?
      • Will there be a port to the Mac?
      • Will there be a port to EPOC?
      • Will there be a port to the iPhone?
    • Embedding PuTTY in other programs
      • Is the SSH or Telnet code available as a DLL?
      • Is the SSH or Telnet code available as a Visual Basic component?
      • How can I use PuTTY to make an SSH connection from within another program?
    • Details of PuTTY's operation
      • What terminal type does PuTTY use?
      • Where does PuTTY store its data?
    • HOWTO questions
      • What login name / password should I use?
      • What commands can I type into my PuTTY terminal window?
      • How can I make PuTTY start up maximised?
      • How can I create a Windows shortcut to start a particular saved session directly?
      • How can I start an SSH session straight from the command line?
      • How do I copy and paste between PuTTY and other Windows applications?
      • How do I use all PuTTY's features (public keys, proxying, cipher selection, etc.) in PSCP, PSFTP and Plink?
      • How do I use PSCP.EXE? When I double-click it gives me a command prompt window which then closes instantly.
      • How do I use PSCP to copy a file whose name has spaces in?
      • Should I run the 32-bit or the 64-bit version?
    • Troubleshooting
      • Why do I see ‘Fatal: Protocol error: Expected control record’ in PSCP?
      • I clicked on a colour in the Colours panel, and the colour didn't change in my terminal.
      • After trying to establish an SSH-2 connection, PuTTY says ‘Out of memory’ and dies.
      • When attempting a file transfer, either PSCP or PSFTP says ‘Out of memory’ and dies.
      • PSFTP transfers files much slower than PSCP.
      • When I run full-colour applications, I see areas of black space where colour ought to be, or vice versa.
      • When I change some terminal settings, nothing happens.
      • My PuTTY sessions unexpectedly close after they are idle for a while.
      • PuTTY's network connections time out too quickly when network connectivity is temporarily lost.
      • When I cat a binary file, I get ‘PuTTYPuTTYPuTTY’ on my command line.
      • When I cat a binary file, my window title changes to a nonsense string.
      • My keyboard stops working once PuTTY displays the password prompt.
      • One or more function keys don't do what I expected in a server-side application.
      • Why do I see ‘Couldn't load private key from ...’? Why can PuTTYgen load my key but not PuTTY?
      • When I'm connected to a Red Hat Linux 8.0 system, some characters don't display properly.
      • Since I upgraded to PuTTY 0.54, the scrollback has stopped working when I run screen.
      • Since I upgraded Windows XP to Service Pack 2, I can't use addresses like 127.0.0.2.
      • PSFTP commands seem to be missing a directory separator (slash).
      • Do you want to hear about ‘Software caused connection abort’?
      • My SSH-2 session locks up for a few seconds every so often.
      • PuTTY fails to start up. Windows claims that ‘the application configuration is incorrect’.
      • When I put 32-bit PuTTY in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 on my 64-bit Windows system, ‘Duplicate Session’ doesn't work.
    • Security questions
      • Is it safe for me to download PuTTY and use it on a public PC?
      • What does PuTTY leave on a system? How can I clean up after it?
      • How come PuTTY now supports DSA, when the website used to say how insecure it was?
      • Couldn't Pageant use VirtualLock() to stop private keys being written to disk?
    • Administrative questions
      • Would you like me to register you a nicer domain name?
      • Would you like free web hosting for the PuTTY web site?
      • Would you link to my web site from the PuTTY web site?
      • Why don't you move PuTTY to SourceForge?
      • Why can't I subscribe to the putty-bugs mailing list?
      • If putty-bugs isn't a general-subscription mailing list, what is?
      • How can I donate to PuTTY development?
      • Can I have permission to put PuTTY on a cover disk / distribute it with other software / etc?
      • Can you sign an agreement indemnifying us against security problems in PuTTY?
      • Can you sign this form granting us permission to use/distribute PuTTY?
      • Can you write us a formal notice of permission to use PuTTY?
      • Can you sign anything for us?
      • If you won't sign anything, can you give us some sort of assurance that you won't make PuTTY closed-source in future?
      • Can you provide us with export control information / FIPS certification for PuTTY?
      • As one of our existing software vendors, can you just fill in this questionnaire for us?
      • The sha1sums / sha256sums / etc files on your download page don't match the binaries.
    • Miscellaneous questions
      • Is PuTTY a port of OpenSSH, or based on OpenSSH or OpenSSL?
      • Where can I buy silly putty?
      • What does ‘PuTTY’ mean?
      • How do I pronounce ‘PuTTY’?
  • Feedback and bug reporting
    • General guidelines
      • Sending large attachments
      • Other places to ask for help
    • Reporting bugs
    • Reporting security vulnerabilities
    • Requesting extra features
    • Requesting features that have already been requested
    • Support requests
    • Web server administration
    • Asking permission for things
    • Mirroring the PuTTY web site
    • Praise and compliments
    • E-mail address
  • PuTTY Licence
  • PuTTY hacking guide
    • Cross-OS portability
    • Multiple backends treated equally
    • Multiple sessions per process on some platforms
    • C, not C++
    • Security-conscious coding
    • Independence of specific compiler
    • Small code size
    • Single-threaded code
    • Keystrokes sent to the server wherever possible
    • 640×480 friendliness in configuration panels
    • Automatically generated Makefiles
    • Coroutines in ssh.c
    • Single compilation of each source file
    • Do as we say, not as we do
  • PuTTY download keys and signatures
    • Public keys
    • Security details
      • The Development Snapshots key
      • The Releases key
      • The Secure Contact Key
      • The Master Keys
    • Key rollover
  • SSH-2 names specified for PuTTY
    • Connection protocol channel request names
    • Key exchange method names
    • Encryption algorithm names

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